Quite a bold statement, I realise, but these puppies are something else. The recipe is for middle white sausage rolls from Dan Doherty's book "Duck and Waffle". I just mistyped "waffle" as "waddle" which is exactly what you will do when you have eaten one.

The recipe is here; but full recipe or not, there are lots of ideas in the recipe for how to pimp the common-or-garden sausage roll to make something really special. The mix is below for you to try and identify the different secret ingredients.

Got them? Sausage meat and minced pork... thyme, foie gras, prunes soaked in brandy, and confit of both garlic and onion. Quite a rich mix. Even the most healthy appetited people - and I mean you, Saunders! - could manage one at best. The confit garlic and onion was definitely worth the extra effort. 

It evens looks delicious raw and uncooked.

As the recipe suggests, we went for chunky, short and intensely meaty sausage rolls. Although if eating for anything other than a rib-sticking dinner, I might suggest eeking out the mixture slightly more to give less of a "cannonball to the stomach" effect. In short, these aren't buffet food if you want your guests to make any conversation and not slump in the corner licking their fingers and moaning. Or maybe that's how you like your parties, I'm not judging. 

The rest of the construction process is, as they say, child's play. Although I don't honestly think that most children have hands big enough to cope with these. 

An aside here. The suggested accompaniment for these beauties is lentils. Do it. Don't scoff about lentils, do the sauteeing and get the chicken stock and make it. The nuttiness and the finish of sherry vinegar are pretty much the perfect partner. And, more importantly, they allow you to justify noshing through what is essentially pimped picnic food at dinner time. Although if you meet anyone who would actually object to being given a sausage roll for dinner, don't trust them, they are clearly a liar. 

And the result. Glossy, golden and crisp on the outside and juicy, rich and porky on the inside. That sounds a little like Miss Piggy, I now realise. I realise here I should have dissected it and taken a photo but, to be completely honest, after coming out of the oven, these sat on the tray for all of about three seconds before they were plated and scoffed. Total bliss. If you are not yet convinced, here is a little vine showing how we did it.